Express & Star

Carlos Corberan: West Brom table talk is ridiculous

Albion boss Carlos Corberan wants his players to forget "ridiculous" talk of the Championship table and focus on some competitive spirit.

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Carlos Corberan (Photo by Adam Fradgley/West Bromwich Albion FC via Getty Images).

The Baggies are on the back foot in the play-off race after a run of four games without a victory and head to Stoke tomorrow, an unhappy hunting ground over the years for Albion.

While Corberan's men have dropped down to 11th the gap to sixth – five points – has not increased despite indifferent form.

The head coach has become more increasingly uninterested in play-off talk and Corberan was extremely unhappy with what he saw from his troops over the Easter double-header against relegation-threatened Rotherham and QPR, where six points would have left the Baggies in the mix, but instead yielded just one.

"My target when I arrived here, what I told the team at the bottom, was to create a competitive team," Corberan said.

"In the last two days we didn't show this. Against Millwall we showed this, but now for me the target is for me to change what we are doing to improve.

"To improve and to compete better, because this is what we want. (To) be thinking about the position in the table is ridiculous, we are thinking about competing better to win the games."

Albion's record at The Hawthorns has been near-impeccable under Corberan, with just one defeat in October, but home fans voiced their displeasure after Monday's draw against the Rs.

"I think it's important to know when you play here, in this club, you have to play to win, this is part of what we need to do, of course the fans are going to be demanding but this is nothing negative, for me this is positive," the Spaniard added on expectancy from the stands.

"It has to be a motivation, when you're in a big club, of course you have to win, you cannot find pressure from this you have to find motivation.

"I cannot say anything negative of the fans from when I arrived here to the club, today we didn't give the answer we need to give on the pitch."

Alex Neil's in-form Potters have lost just once in seven and climbed to 15th.